Our most anticipated iOS and Android games for 2017

More more more. Even though 2016 gave us a bumper crop of brilliant mobile games, we need more. So here are 12 hotly anticipated mobile games that Pocket Gamer will surely be writing about in the next 12 months.

Expect all of these games on both iOS and Android, unless noted. And don't blame us if any of these get cancelled, slip into 2018, or were just a fever dream.

Animal Crossing

Nintendo has promised us a handful of mobile games. Miitomo and Super Mario Run are here - but expect both Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing in the new year. If we had to pick just one, we're most looking forward to tending our tiny village on the go.

Framed was a super smart game: a moody noir adventure about reordering comic book panels to get away from the cops. The sequel will have new characters and new puzzle mechanics. Hideo Kojima must be ecstatic.

Like Fallout Shelter, but with more cannibalism. This is a post-apocalyptic game with loads going on - including a crafting system, turn-based tussles with other survivors, and the ability to recruit outsiders into your nuclear family.

It's Ridge Racer! Riiiiii-yeah, you get it. We all like a good meme. You know what's even better than memes? Other than everything? The ability to draw a racing line on a track, and then jump behind the wheel and tell your car when to brake, boost, and drift.

Layton may be done. Hung up his stovepipe hat. Put down his puzzle books. But don't bin your Hint Coins just yet - Layton's daughter Katrielle will be starring in her own riddle-filled game, and this time it's coming to mobile.

Here are some words that don't always go together: online multiplayer and interactive fiction. Yeah, that's weird. But this game professes to let you play the sort of text adventure seen in 80 Days with another player. No idea how it will work but we're excited to see them try.

Ah, card games. You darn kids, I remember when mobile games were all tower defence games. And then all match-three games. And then all endless runners. And then all Clash of Clans clones. And then all MOBAs. But card games! They're here to stay!

Here's a slick and shiny cyberpunk shooter that you'll be wanting to keep an eye on. It's a real-time tactical shooter where you'll need to deploy a team of secret agents and use both combat and hacking to progress through the game. Strangely, this one will be exclusive to iPad.

Battleheart 2

The Battleheart games are well loved on mobile. So a big chunky sequel with cooperative multiplayer for up to four friends? Get out of my dreams and into my car. Looks like this one will be closer to the original Battleheart, than the PS1-style RPG Legacy.

Here are some words. Star Wars. Mobile. Real-time. PvP. MOBA. Yoda. Netmarble. Put them all together in any order you want. Yeah, this doesn't sound massively exciting, but making a team of Star Wars heroes from the classic saga to Rebels could be a ball.

Project Night Road

Simogo is forever "one to watch". With a bumper back catalogue of excellent games (like DEVICE 6, Bumpy Road, and Beat Sneak Bandit), you should know to sit up and pay attention when this Swedish studio reveals a new iOS game.

We don't know much about the game, other than it has "A bunch of characters. Motorcycles. Dancing. Masks. Weird powers. A mysterious thrift store existing only in a girl’s dream. And a really really cool soundtrack".

Gameloft's got a bunch of new games in the works, including Zombie Anarchy, Modern Combat Versus, Gangstar New Orleans, and Asphalt Xtreme. This online shooter is the biggest one of the lot. Doesn't sound like there's a singleplayer mode, which is a shame, but we'll take this multiplayer gun game anyway.